Not many musicians have theatrical documentaries released about them, especially any narrated by distinguished actor Morgan Freeman. Of course, there aren’t many musicians like B.B. King.

“The Life of Riley,” the B.B. King documentary released Oct. 15 (King’s given first name is Riley) puts in perspective how much the guitar player has meant to the blues, and music in general.

King has spent a staggering 65 of his 87 years as a professional musician, and has performed 25 years after being given a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In February, when President Obama held a celebration of the blues at the White House, it was King he chose to headline.

In a 25-year career, Scott Weiland has sold 20 million albums, had 20 Top 10 hits and nine No. 1 songs with Stone Temple Pilots (“Plush,” “Vasoline,” “Interstate Love Song,” “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” and more) and Velvet Revolver (“Slither,” “Fall to Pieces”).

He’s also released four solo albums. Publicity for his upcoming show at Keswick Theatre in Glenside says he’ll play hits from STP and Velvet, plus solo songs.

And don’t forget — with the show coming during the Christmas season — that Weiland in 2011 released a Christmas album, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”)

English rock band The Moody Blues has sold out Easton’s State Theatre at least five times: in 2000, 2002, 2003, 2008 and 2010. It also sold out Musikfest in 2007.

So what’s the draw for a band that hasn’t had a Top 40 hit in 25 years — or even a disc of new material in a decade?

The Moodies weren’t just any rock band. They pioneered the mating of orchestral music with rock and became the father of prog rock, with such hits as “Nights in White Satin,” “Tuesday Afternoon,” “I’m Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band” in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1980s, it had a second bump of popularity, topping the charts with “Your Wildest Dreams.” Now the band is getting ready for its 50th anniversary.

Seems the rapper who lives by the novelty hit dies by the novelty hit.

Bucks County-born rapper Asher Roth came out of nowhere in 2009 to top the charts with his slacker single "I Love College" and debut album "Asleep in the Bread Aisle." But Roth found life a bit harder after, ahem, graduating to the big time.

Roth announced a year ago he had left Universal Motown to sign with Def Jam Recordings for his sophomore album after the preview single "G.R.I.N.D. (Get Ready It's a New Day)" only hit No. 79 in 2010, and two subsequent singles failed to chart. But it still hasn’t come out, and he’s announced that the title, "Is This Too Orange," also has been changed.

Roth shouldn’t feel too bad. The Sugarhill Gang also had a huge rap hit with “Rapper’s Delight” and pretty much nothing after that, but that one song still makes them worth seeing.

When 1970s new wave rockers Cheap Trick played Penn’s Peak near Jim Thorpe nearly 10 years ago, it refused to perform its biggest hit and only No. 1 song, “The Flame,” despite the crowd’s pleas. Apparently the band thought that, since it didn’t write that song, it didn’t owe it to anyone to play it.

When Cheap Trick opened for Aerosmith at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center in July, it played that song, but shouldn’t have. On a song that depends on vocals, Robin Zander’s singing was bad. Brutally bad. Zander’s voice is totally shot.

Guitarist Rick Nielson is now too chunky to make his split jumps, and the band no longer has distinguished drummer Bun E. Carlos, instead using Dax Nielson, Rick’s son, on percussion.

So why is this concert in the Top 5 of the Week? Well, the songs are still ones that should be heard – even “The Flame.” And maybe the group can catch lightning in a bottle again. And if not, sometimes a perversely bad show is fun, too.

Philadelphia-based soul band The Trammps had four Top 40 R&B hits, including the No. 10 “Hold Back the Night” and the No. 12 “That’s Where Happy People Go,” both in 1976, before it had its first disco hit, “Disco Inferno.” But what a hit that was. First released in 1976 and Top 10 on the R&B chart, it arguably made The Trammps the first disco band (though the Bee Gees had released “Jive Talkin’” months earlier). It even became a hit a second time when re-released on the “Saturday Night Live” soundtrack in 1978.

Canadian rockers Sum 41 rode the second wave of punk to the top of the alternative rock chart in 2001 with its hit “Fat Lip” from the album “All Killer, No Filler.” That disc also spawned the Top 10 song “In Too Deep” and went platinum. But it was with 2002’s gold disc “Does This Look Infected” that the band really hit its stride. The disc only went gold, and its hits didn’t chart as high (“Still Waiting” at No. 7 and “Still Waiting” at No. 13), but the album had far more staying power, as the band is now acknowledging with a 10th anniversary tour of it. The actual 10th anniversary of its release is Nov. 26, three days after the Croc Rock show.

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.